Reflexive opposition to Teach For America (TFA) is commonplace and the arguments against the organization are recycled regularly: Corps members are ill-prepared, they don’t stay in the profession, or they primarily teach at charter schools.

It’s rare to come across fresh or fair takes on TFA, much less from someone who is a former corps member and has taught at public schools both traditional and charter.

School Data Nerd is the nom de plume of Benjamin Feinberg, an eighth-grade math and science teacher at Luther Burbank Middle School, in Highland Park, who uses public data to guide his thinking on educational issues rather than resorting to rhetoric or politicking.

Feinberg, a TFA corps member in 2008, was curious to see how many people from his cohort were still teaching, so he took to Internet voyeurism courtesy of LinkedIn, Facebook and Google to find out. (Feinberg admitted his approach was more snoopy than scientific.)

Click here for the full story from Education Post, and read LA School Report’s profile of Feinberg here.